This invention relates to a method for sorting out a large number of goods by items and destinations and a system therefor, and more particularly to a method for speedily and efficiently sorting out goods in the order that they will be delivered trucks or the like and a system therefor.
Methods for sorting out goods and the system therefor in the prior art are disclosed in, for instance, Japanese Patent Applications laid-open No. Sho 55-16868 and No. Sho 61-2612.
Japanese Patent application laid-open No. Sho 55-16868 teaches, in summation, a sorting out system which comprises a trolley conveyor positioned in a manner to run along an oval loop track between sorting chutes, a conveyor for empty tote boxes and a conveyor for tote boxes filled with goods, traversers mounted on said trolley conveyor at least in a number of said chutes and provided with wheels of caster type, and a pool bucket comprising buckets on said traversers.
Japanese Patent Application laid-open No. Sho 61-2612 teaches a method for sorting out goods comprising the steps of carrying goods which have arrived on a conveyor by the first sorting conveyor to plural first-storage conveyors while sorting the goods out, taking out thus roughly sorted out goods on the first-circuit conveyor in the unit of one first-storage conveyor, moving the goods from said first sorting conveyor to a second sorting conveyor which is provided either above or below said first sorting conveyor in parallel thereto, sorting the goods for the second stage while conveying them on the second sorting conveyor and moving them further to plural second storage conveyors, taking thus twice sorted goods on the second circuit conveyor in the unit of one second storage conveyor and then forwarding them to loading stations for trucks.
However, the prior art method and system are detrimental as follows:
The system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application laid-open No. Sho 55-16868 could sort out goods but could not sort them out in accordance with the order of delivery by trucks.
The method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application laid-open No. Sho 61-2612 could load goods on a truck in the order of first-in-last-out so that on the way of transportation by a truck, they can be unloaded in the unit of destinations such as a city, town, village, etc. However, the method requires first and the second sorting steps, and conveying steps to the loading stations for trucks, which cannot be conducted simultaneously. Therefore, the capacity of sorting out is so inferior that the method cannot load goods on a truck as timely and quickly as desired.
An object of this invention is to eliminate those problems encountered in the prior art, and to provide a method for sorting out goods which cannot only sort out goodes sequentially in a manner to allow loading on a truck or the like consecutively in the order of first-in-last-out in accordance to the number of destinations for one delivery, items of goods for each destination and quantity thereof, but also can sort goods efficiently in a manner to deal with changes in orders which may occur for every delivery by taking out goods for several truck loads at one time and sorting them for first-in-last-out for each truck and a system therefor.
The method of sorting goods according to this invention can sort out a large number of goods roughly in the order of delivery, and more particularly can sort out goods efficiently by establishing in advance groups of goods in a number within a predetermined quantity based on data and sorting arriving goods in the unit of items into said groups.
Such quantity is preferably determined in a manner that the number of goods classified into each group becomes substantially equal to each other, the quantity being determined by the longitudinal dimension of goods, and goods should be conveyed in the order of longitudinal sizes starting from longer goods to shorter goods.
In order to achieve aforementioned objects, the system according to this invention includes plural assembling and storage conveyors which assemble goods in predetermined groups, a diverting conveyor which divides the goods which have arrived in the unit of items into said assembling and storage conveyors and a control system which controls said diverting conveyor and sorting operation.
This invention sorting system preferably has two sets of assembling and storage conveyors and a diverting conveyor arranged in two layers.
This invention sorting system preferably includes a computer for physical districution which generates assembling data and diverting data, a computer for facilities control which generates necessary control commands out of said assembling and diverting data and a control means which performs predetermined control with said commands from said facilities control computer.
This invention method can sort out goods in a manner of loading on trucks or the like in first-in-last-out in accordance with the number of destinations for one delivery, and the items or quantity of goods for one destination. The method further can sort goods efficiently in a manner to deal with changes in orders which may occur for every delivery by taking out goods for several truck loads at one time and sorting them for first-in-last-out for each truck. According to this invention method, goods are unlikely to collapse during transportation as they can be piles at even height in a container to secure safe delivery.